James Woods hits back at claims Sochi Olympic slopestyle course is dangerous

James Woods has hit back at claims the Sochi Olympic slopestyle course is dangerous and insists he cannot wait to get started in his quest for gold.

The 22-year-old Sheffield freeskier kicks off his campaign at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park a week tomorrow having heard some of his competitors complain that the set-up is ‘scary’.

That was borne out yesterday by the withdrawal of two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medallist Shaun White from the snowboard slopestyle, with Norwegian Torstein Horgmo breaking his collarbone in practice on Monday.

Woods’ British team-mate Billy Morgan is among the critics of the course, which was modified on Tuesday, and another Briton, Jenny Jones, revealed snowboarders were concerned by the speed of the jumps.

However, Woods has defended organisers, who were guided by bosses from the top ski and snowboard event X Games, from which he has two bronze medals.

‘I love the course – it’s fantastic,’ said the Colorado-based slopestyle star. ‘This is what we do week-in, week-out: turn up to a venue, give them feedback if we don’t like what we see, and the organisers work on it, which they’ve done.

‘It is tough, it is difficult, but this is exactly what I want from an Olympic course. If it was anything less, I’d be really disappointed. The Olympics has to be the hardest course of all.

‘Obviously we wanted it changed and made as near to perfect as possible. This is usual – the difference here for us is that there is the world’s media around and people looking for a problem.’